Post-grad life is such a weird time in life especially the first couple of weeks. Even so, post-grad life starts to kick in even before you graduate. I thought the transition from high school to college was strange, but the transition from undergrad to post-undergrad just strange.
For me, this began to kick in right around spring break. A lot of my classmates registered for classes, and for UC students, we get an email with our registration time. However, instead of the class registration email, I was emailed information about commencement. I immediately thought "well, this is getting real."
Even before that, and many of my peers got annoyed with this, we got emails asking for donations even before we graduated. Like, maybe once I'm half-way established I can donate, but I need to enjoy whatever money I make and save for grad school life. The moment it truly got real that I was graduating was when I got my cap and gown right after spring break. I realized that this may be likely the last time my friends and I are going to be in the same city for a long period of time ever again.
Regardless, post-grad life is incredibly strange and I'm a week into it already. This summer, I am thankful to be working up to full time on my campus before heading off to grad school, but I realize not everyone has that privilege. I see friends and classmates making career and job hunting a full-time job. I saw others going abroad for the summer. What looms over all of our heads, however, is our impending student loan debt. While I have a temporary reprieve from repaying for a while because of grad school, I can still feel the dark black cloud looming over my head.
From my experience in the short week of post-grad life, I'm still not sure if it fully hit me yet that I won't return to taking 18-hour course loads or working on 10 papers until my fingers bleed.
The one weird thing so far is the time. Right now, I just have work and my role of Editor in Chief for my community here at Odyssey. It is such a weird feeling of just having work and not worrying about getting textbooks or making sure my audit is up-to-date or scheduling advising appointments or getting into the right classes.
Instead, so far, I've found myself more engaged with my work, but I've been struggling to find the work-life balance. To me, that's been the biggest adjustment.
The whole summer transition from undergrad to graduate school is strange. I have friends who got internships, some who also ended up continuing to work on campus, and others who just moved home for the summer and maybe picked up a summer job. The three months or season after graduating is unique in the sense that you have time to do stuff you wanted to do but never got to do because of all the work and classes.
For example, so far, I don't feel rushed to unpack the rest of my items into my summer apartment. I have the urge to want to do more things for fun such as reading and writing, all of which I never had the time to during the school year. The academic year takes so much time from you to enjoy things and that's what summer means to me at this point. I can come home after work, enjoy a meal, and catch up on shows or try to find the next book to read. It's a whole new adventure and I am enjoying it so far.
While I miss the craziness from undergrad, I can honestly say that having a sense of stability, a break from courses, and a break from just life
Even on social media, it's quite strange. My friends who are still in undergrad are studying abroad, landed super cool internships, and winning awards. To contrast, I got excited over finding out the Butler Country Donut Trail was a real thing .
The transition from undergrad to post-undergrad life is really something college can't 100 percent prepare you for especially if you're in a gray area. A degree does not guarantee you a job, student loan debt is crippling, and there is no guarantee of a job in your field. Post-grad life is really what you make of it. Even if you're in a similar boat like me and planning on grad school in the fall, you must truly take the summer for yourself and for self care.
